OAK MOSS what’s not to Lichen!

OAK MOSS

Oak Moss easy to see against the browns of the forest floor.

Other Names: Évernie, Mousse de Chêne, Ebernia Prunasti, Évernia, Evernia prunastri, Lichen Oak Moss, , Musgo de Roble, Tree Moss.

Archie and the Lichen

Identification:

A species of fruticose a branched, bushy lichen. It grows in forests throughout much of the northern hemisphere usually on old oak trees but can also be found growing on coniferous trees and some older fruit trees. The pale greenish gray thallus or body, 3 to 8 cm long, is branched palmately and slightly resembling mini stag horns, ending in pointed tips. The top is light green and warty with pale gray reproductive bodies called soredia. The undersurface is a whitish colour.

Close up of the Oak Moss thallus

My introduction to Oak Moss:

During my time learning and munching my way through the edible plant kingdom I have come across two different types of wild edible. Those that I would happily eat and those which I would label “starvation foods” meaning -they’re for reindeers and Ray Mears - you can eat them if you’re starving, but they’re not going to be setting your culinary world on fire; in fact if they make it on to that list they’re positively ‘orrible!

Oak Moss in situ.

Until recently I was aware that certain lichens and mosses were edible but had assumed that their place was well and truly on the Starvation Foods list. Still having not tried any I’d be a fool to just write them off like that!

Whilst wandering through my local woods surveying the carnage that had been brought on this winter by a rapid successions of storms and floods, I started noticing that there was a lot more oak moss on the ground, clearly dislodged by the strong winds.  There was certainly enough to bring home and have an experiment with in the kitchen. I gathered as much as I could from underneath some of the older oak trees, picked a few late season Hedgehog Fungus and winter chanterelles, and headed back to the lab.

Plenty has been written about oak moss and it’s uses as a fixative in the perfume industry. On smelling a bag full of it, it’s easy to see why, the lichen has beautiful delicate woody aroma.  Acids contained within oak moss are also extracted for use in drugs to treat infections and external wounds.  I have been told that it is these same acids that can give you a very painful time of things should you try to eat oak moss raw.  There is anecdotal evidence of a death attributed to eating oak moss, as the poor forager committed suicide from the pain in his stomach. BUT not to worry the process in the recipe below will be sure to rid the oak moss of this slightly disconcerting feature.

No Oak Moss here just thought I'd share a nice photo!

The starchy nature of cooked oak moss lends itself well to being a carrier of flavour.  I have tried several different versions of this recipe, adding different oils and dustings of spices but this one is a good starting point.  I’d love to hear in the comments below what you did with yours!

Oak Moss with Truffle and Lemon

Ingredients:

3 or 4 handfuls of Oak Moss

Sunflower Oil

Truffle Oil

1 Lemon

Kitchen Towel

The Raw ingredient. 

Recipe:

Clean the oak moss to ensure there are no bits of bark still attached

Prepare two pans of salted boiling water.

Boil the oak moss for 5 minutes in the first pan then strain and transfer to the second pan for a further 5 minutes.

Strain the water and lay each piece of moss out on the kitchen towel to dry out slightly.

Meanwhile heat your sunflower oil for deep-frying the moss to 160 C.

Drop small amounts of the oak moss into the oil and fry for between 5 and 10 seconds, remove with a slotted spoon and place on some more kitchen towel.

Once its all been fried, place in a bowl, season with salt and pepper, drizzle about half a teaspoon of truffle oil, a squeeze of lemon and gently toss to coat the lichen with the flavouring ensuring not to be too rough and break the delicate structure.

Experimenting with flavours 

Spice Dusted Oak Moss, Hedgehog Fungus and Winter Chanterelle Croquets with a Rare Roast Saddle of Venison.

How to Incorporate Stinging Nettles Into Your Diet

Nettles are high in protein.

Though stinging nettles may look like just some weed growing in your yard or the woods near your home and not a very pleasant one at that, with the stingers on their stems but they are actually a very tasty and nutritious green. Stinging nettles, or just nettles, are higher in protein than most other greens (they are about 40 percent protein), and they are high in a number of other nutrients, including iron, manganese, calcium and Vitamins A and C.

Not only are stinging nettles great for your health since they are full of nutrients, but many people also eat them for their curative properties. You can make a tea from nettles that can help to prevent or treat illness and allergies.

Finding stinging nettles is relatively easy, but they do require some care in harvesting them. As their name suggests, they are covered with tiny stingers that will hurt a lot if you just grab them by the hand. The stingers have the acid found in the bites of fire ants. So, yeah, imagine putting your hand in a hive of fire ants and the experience is somewhat comparable.

It is important to wear gloves, as well as long sleeves and long pants when you are harvesting nettles, although braver individuals than me claim that carefully picking with thumb and forefinger shouldn’t sting. They can grow long, and you don't want the leaves and the stems to brush your hand or your feet as you are walking through a patch or are reaching in to harvest them.

Grasping nettles with the thumb and fore finger should mean no sting.

Look for nettles that have tender young leaves, and only cut off the upper leaves. The young leaves should be no bigger than 3 inches wide. Any bigger than that and you're likely to get a very bitter, stringy plant. You can cut the leaves off, or you can just cut off the top 5 inches or so of the plant, further more you should not eat nettles once they have flowered. Clip your nettles with some pruning shears or sturdy scissors and put them in a basket or bag of your choice. When you get them home, they are ready for blanching.

Boil up a pot of water, either with a little salt thrown in or without. Dump your nettle leaves in the pot and let them boil for about 10 minutes. You can then scoop them out with a spoon and dunk them in cold water. Set them aside to drain and to dry.

Blanching nettles will not only take care of the stingers, but it will also clean them and make them safe for eating. Don't be alarmed if the water turns color as that is common.

Once your nettles have been blanched, you can cook them just as you would spinach or any other green. Nettles are great in a soup or stew, or you can add them with some other veggies to a pasta or a rice dish. You can even steep them for a flavorful tea.

Still stumped about how to cook your nettles? Check out these 8 recipes for stinging nettles.

Do you cook with nettles? Share your tips for finding and harvesting them, as well as some of your favorite recipes, in the comments!

About the Author:

Bridget Sandorford is a freelance food and culinary writer, where recently she’s been researching culinary schools in Pittsburgh. In her spare time, she enjoys biking, painting and working on her first cookbook.

Saltmarsh Lamb, Wild Herbs, Samphire and Purslane

Saltmarsh Lamb, Purslane Crisps and a Samphire Kale and Blue Cheese Rockefeller.

A few months ago I was approached to enter a TV cookery competition the name of which I am currently not allowed to disclose. Having spoken briefly with a researcher about the type of recipe they where after I went off completely half cocked and created this tasty little number only to find out I couldn’t actually make it to the heats in the first place!

I wanted to have as many foraged ingredients in there as possible all within a close locality to one another. The area I had in mind was Alfriston and the tidal area of the Cuckmere river. I’d mulled over using mullet from the river but due to my massive lack of fishing skills I decided to give that a miss.

Whilst out and about collecting some samphire and a purslane, the idea came to me, Saltmarsh Lamb! A Saltmarsh lamb feeds on the purslane and samphire too so the flavours have a natural affinity with each other and having recently used the Hunter Gather Cook recipe for a Wild Herb Rub to make some great tasting lamb things were definitely coming together.

Having decided to do purslane crisps, and a Blue Cheese Rockefeller I started looking for a local blue cheese (to keep it Sussex!) in replacement for the Roquefort I’d initially thought would work best. Turns out this was much harder than I originally thought, even with the help of some of my cheese officiando friends, I was at a loss. But then I stumbled across the High Weald Dairy cheese company only a few miles from me, on the off chance I gave them a call and as it turns out they had a “prototype” Roquefort type Sussex blue in development. Mark at High Weald was nice enough to give me a tester piece to experiment with and this recipe was good to go!

Lamb with a HGC Ground Ivy Rub

2 French trimmed racks of Saltmarsh Lamb

For the Groud Ivy Rub:

• Hand full of Ground ivy (dried)
• Hand full of Mint (dried)
• Hand full of Oxeye daisy leave (dried)
• Pine needles (Fresh and finely chopped)
• 2 cloves of Garlic (finely chopped and briefly oven dried)
• Zest of 3 Lemons (briefly oven dried)
• Salt & Pepper
• Sugar

Remove the stalks, finely chop or blend all the ingredients and combine to make the rub.

Rub the racks of lamb all over with the mixture then place in a ziplock bag pour in a few glugs of olive oil and give it a little shake to get the oil over the lamb. Refrigerate over night or as long as you can. Remove the lamb from the fridge at least 2 hours before cooking.

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 4/400 degrees. Score the fat side to the lamb and season, wrap foil around the exposed ribs to stop them burning. Place on a baking tray fat side up.

Roast at Gas Mark 4 for 7 minutes then drop the temperature to Gas Mark 3 for a further 7 -15 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 130 degrees in the thickest park of the meat.

Remove from the oven and rest for 7-10minutes cover with foil. Cut into chops and serve 3-4 a person. 

Samphire and Kale Blue Cheese Rockerfeller.

250g Kale Finely chopped

1 Handful of breadcrumbs

1 Egg Beaten

1 small Onion finely chopped

30g Butter

50g Sussex Blue Cheese from the

1 large tbsp of pickled Samphire roughly chopped.

2 Gloves of Garlic Finely chopped

2 Sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 Tsp dried thyme

Salt and ground pepper to season.

Couple of pinches of garlic salt

1 Beef tomato sliced in 2 cm thick.

Directions:

1. Boil the Kale for a few minutes and strain thoroughly.

2. Place the breadcrumbs, kale, onion, eggs, melted butter, blue cheese, pickled samphire, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper and stir well to blend the ingredients.

3. In a buttered ramekin (1 per person) place one slice of tomato and sprinkle a little garlic salt.  Spoon in the Kale mixture to fill the ramekins.

Bake at Gas Mark 4/ 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes

Purslane Crisps :

2 Handfuls of Purslane leaves, stalks removed

100g of Bread crumbs well seasoned with salt and pepper

1 egg beaten

1 small amount of flour

Vegetable oil.

Dip each leaf in the flour then egg then breadcrumbs and fry in the vegetable oil for a few seconds until golden, remove from pan and on to some kitchen towel to get rid of any excess oil.

Put it all together and there you go! Sorry there's no pictures of the actual dish, hope you like the others. Enjoy!

Potted Rabbit

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Potted Rabbit

Preserving protein for the cold winter months has a long tradition in the UK as well as Europe. In Europe and especially France the favoured technique is a Rillette, however in the UK potting is the technique of choice.

Although these days with 24 hour supermarkets, freezers, an endless supply of fresh food from all over the globe this way of preserving is no longer a requirement of your average household and seems for be slipping out of the publics psyche. It is none the less a delicious way to serve rabbit and can add some much needed moisture and richness to what can often be quite a dry meat.

At Hunter Gather Cook we always have access to the best and freshest local game through our contacts with game keepers and local farms. This can sometimes be too much of a good thing and when I was presented with three tasty little critters and a freezer already stuffed to the nines other gamey bits and pieces I decided it was time to get potting!

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.

In a little oil brown the rabbit pieces and then cook bacon in a frying pan. Set the bacon to one side.

Put the browned rabbit along with the trotters, chopped veg, thyme, bay, ground ivy, and wine into a large casserole dish (two if need be). Top up with water so everything is just covered.

Bring to the boil, cover, put into the oven and cook until the meat flakes off the bone. About 1 hour 45 minutes should do it.

Strain off the liquor into another pan and reduce to around a quarter of the original liquid. This will take a little while so in the mean time its back to the rabbit.

Once the rabbit has cooled slightly shred all meat off of the bones being careful to ensure no small bones make it in there, they can be an unwelcome addition to an otherwise amazing dish. Place the shredded rabbit into a large bowl, add the mustard, parsley, bacon and season to taste. Give it all a good stir to work the flavours in.

Next loosely pack the rabbit mixture into your chosen vessels (Kilner jars are best for this). Pour over the reduced liquor almost to the top of the jar.

Leave the full jars to cool slightly then put into the fridge to chill overnight. By the morning the gelatine extracted from the trotters should have done its magic and set over the top.

I served mine on wholemeal toast with lightly fried Ceps and Wood Sorrel to Garnish. Went down a treat!

My Top 10 Favourite Venison Dishes

Fillets De Perche A La Puree D' Orties ....

 ...Or fillets of Perch in a Nettle Puree, sometimes it just sounds better in French.

Below is the recipe I made from the lovely fish Rick caught me.  It was sods law that the  camera ran out of battery just as I plated it up, so you'll have to use your imagination.  I can assure you it looked and tasted great though!  I plan to make it again soon and will put up a picture but will definitely use more Perch fillets next time as it wasn't big enough to share.  

Rain can’t stop us

06.07.12. One winch at a time in the Monkey Woods.

A friend of ours, Nick, is fortunate enough to have five acres of woodland in a very picturesque part of Sussex.  It’s a great place to spend time sitting by a fire and cooking the odd sausage in the summer months.  Sadly, of late the experience has been less than pleasant; we’ve been forced to sit feeling sorry for ourselves under tarpaulins - trying to pretend it’s not raining.  

We had had almost given up the woodland dream, when Nick met Sandy at a gypsy themed party. Nick, being a sensitive soul, fell hopelessly in love with her at first sight. 

Sandy the caravan - www.hazydayscaravanhire.co.uk/

OK, so I know caravans aren’t all that cool, but you haven’t met Sandy.  As Sandy is already spoken for, Nick decided he needed one just like her in the Monkey Woods.  So along came the Compass 342, fresh from the fields of Kent. 

Admittedly she’s no Sandy but we’re working on it.

Four of us met at the gates to the Monkey Woods in anticipation of the delivery of the Compass.  After 15 minutes of good progress with the four of us pushing and pulling, the poor compass was thoroughly stuck in a rut.  With the promise of a free meal, I shot off home to grab a winch and dragged her up onto even ground where she sits proudly as queen of the woods.

 So now we can escape to the woods, whatever the weather and the sound of the rain drumming on the roof is rather nice, actually. Watch this space for some foraging experiments from the caravan kitchen. 

 

Wild garlic pesto

The wild garlic season may have come to an end (April-June) - but I found myself with a craving for it  so got out some Wild Garlic I froze a couple of weeks ago to use with lunch...

Nettles meet the East

 

I used regular stinging nettles to make my Pichchhoo aloo but you could also use White dead nettles or Red Dead nettles - although they are much harder to find.  Archie managed to find one:

My First Full Meal with Foraged Sussex Food!

Wood Sorrel from the local woodland to create my Beurre Blanc and sautéed sea purslane from a tidal river- both excellent accompaniments to a lovely fillet of Sea bass.  Oh and mash, never forget the mash.

One of my first forays in foraging: Oxalis

Welcome to foragesussex

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As I have recently joined the growing ranks of the unemployed I thought I would spend some time (which is something I now have rather a lot of!) doing something I really enjoy and share what I learn along the way in a blog.  Foraging in the Sussex countryside certainly beats my desk job in the city and also means I can eat well on a budget, which is obviously rather important in my current situation...

I have always enjoyed the outdoors, but I have never before appreciated the abundance of wonderful things that grow right on my doorstep.  Even the humble nettle has pushed me to try a whole new raft of recipes – with some very satisfying results.  The High Weald has some great foraging opportunities being ideally located with access to great coastlines and woodlands.  

                                                                                                 

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My girlfriend’s dog, Archie, loves joining me for a good ramble in the countryside.